Worn Out
by Dyde21
Summary: Annabeth and Percy love each other. A lot. Once they start their life together in New Rome, they are finally able to live like normal teenagers. Sometimes that also means getting burned out like normal teenagers. Just a little fluff of the two taking care of each other.


There were a countless number of reasons Percy loved his girlfriend, and he was pretty sure he came up with new ones every day. Pretty high on the list though was how much he admired how hard Annabeth worked. She always seemed to be tackling new projects, helping others with theirs, or just researching architecture for fun. She would break down her projects into clear steps, then tackle them in an orderly way that Percy could only dream of using.

On the other hand, Percy also knew that his girlfriend had a habit of working _too_ hard. It was hardly uncommon, and it had become his role to take care of her when that happened. Instances like tonight.

Closing his own textbook, Percy stretched out his back and let out a yawn. He had _finally_ gotten through that worksheet and was good for the night. His thoughts drifting to the blond in the other room of their apartment they were sharing in New Rome, he realized it had been hours since he had last heard her leave her room for the restroom.

He knew she was approaching the end of one of the designs she had been working on for weeks, which meant she went into her focused mode and was likely forgetting that she was actually still human with human needs.

Standing up and ignoring the protest of his back as it tried to remember how to function, he peaked open the door to her room. Sure enough Annabeth was furiously typing away at her laptop, a pencil sticking out of her mouth as she stared at the screen with an intense focus. Percy noticed the empty plate next to her that previously held apples slices with peanut butter and an empty water cup.

Turning around, Percy hummed to himself as he made his way back towards their kitchen and started to fish through drawers.

A few minutes later, Percy gently knocked on Annabeth's door with his elbow.

"Annabeth?"

"Hm?" Was her response with a hoarse voice, clearly out of practice with it today.

"Pit stop time." He offered as he entered her room again.

Annabeth scribbled a few more lines on the large set of blueprints stretched out on the table in front of her before she finally pried her eyes away from it to look at her boyfriend.

As Annabeth took in the sight, a small sheepish grin crept on her face. "Did I forget to eat again?" She muttered only mildly embarrassed. She knew it was an unhealthy habit to get that lost in her work, but she was just _so close_ to finishing.

With a simple tsk, Percy first offered her a thermos of coffee that Annabeth eagerly took and began inhaling, begging to caffeine to do it's trick to keep her up for the final push. With his free hand he gathered up her empty dishes while he replaced them with her favorite sandwich and a salad. Even if her habits were unhealthy, Percy figured he should at least try to give her a healthy diet at times like this. They certainly made a habit of getting enough Pizza that they could both use an occasional green entree.

Annabeth gazed at the food, then back at him with a warm look that made his cheek flush. She quickly pecked him on the cheek. "Thanks love." She was about to say something more when it dawned on her. Quickly standing up, she brushed his arm with her hand as she quickly fled her room towards the bathroom when the distress signals her bladder had been sending her finally reached her brain.

When Annabeth finally returned, feeling unbelievably better, she found Percy was already gone. This brought a small pout to her lips, but the little sticky note with a hastily drawn smiling fish and the words "you got this" in his scrawl made her grin again. Feeling refreshed and her engine revved up, she sat back down and took a bite of her sandwich as she dug back into her blueprints, she would finish this tonight. Some small back part of her brain was already forming a plan for a date night she owed him for both being an amazing boyfriend, and as an apology for being so needy and distracted the past week.

Back in the living room, Percy settled into the couch as he flipped through the channels with a small smile. While Annabeth was in the bathroom, Percy had taken the opportunity to glance at her blueprints. While he was certainly no expert, dating an architect had given him a basic understanding of it and he could now make heads and tails of them. Once again her work blew him away, it was gorgeous and certainly fitting for Olympus. They were going to love it.

If Percy were to be honest, he would admit that he was missing Annabeth a bit. It really had been a while since the two of them had just hung out. They had both been so busy with classes, and Percy with his part time job that most of the time he would kill time alone while Annabeth worked. She always made sure to at least spend a little time talking with him, and he'd feel her crawl into bed late at night, but usually one of them had to get up before the other one and it'd be another long day before they could see each other again briefly lately. It was rough, but Percy knew it was important to Annabeth and that it wouldn't last for much longer.

Besides, Percy was honestly relieved to see Annabeth like this in a sense. After all they had been through with the two wars they had miraculously survived, they never had a chance to be just normal teenagers. That was why Percy had been so eager to go to New Rome with her for college, and was over the moon when she agreed. For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, they felt _normal_. Their biggest problems were the grades they were going to get in their classes, and keeping up with training in their free time to stay sharp. They didn't have to worry about monster attacks every minute of the day, an experience that was unavailable at every other college in the world.

This brief break had done wonders for their relationship. They were able to go on dates to a cafe, spend time to just talk their issues out and unpack all the baggage with their trudge through tartarus and moving forward. They were able to act like the usual teenage couple they liked to make fun of, and even if just for a short time, pretend like there wasn't a world out there trying to kill them. Even with the time they spent helping out the camp, it was still a _much_ needed break.

While Percy could certainly feel the the relief with just being able to relax for once, he was happy to see Annabeth getting so excited about her architecture without having to shoulder the burden of people's lives depending on her. In his opinion she looked more youthful, less stressed, and she smiled and laughed more often than she had since before the whole second war. At least when she wasn't nose deep in blueprints. There was still a certain beauty in Percy's opinion to seeing his girlfriend hard at work like that.

Percy wasn't quite sure when the sports game had lulled him off to sleep, but he woke up to some late night TV ad and turned it off. Stretching, his poor abused back protested from the awful angle it was forced to rest in on the couch he had used as a makeshift bed. Realizing there was still a smashed bag of chips between his side and the couch, and the pillow had fallen to the ground, he figured Annabeth was _still_ working. Whenever she found him passed out on the couch he always woke up to a blanket, a good pillow, and his mess cleaned up for him.

Pawing for his phone, he winced at the bright screen until he saw the time.

3 AM?

It was already an hour past the designated time he had set for making sure Annabeth actually went to bed to get some sleep before the next day.

Forcing himself to his feet, he made his way through their small place with a yawn. Opening Annabeth's door, he saw her passed out unsurprisingly. The food had been eaten, her laptop was off to the side and she was face down on her blueprints, using her arm as a pillow. Her spine looked... uncomfortable to say the least.

Making his way through the annoyingly dark room, he gently tapped her shoulder before he ran a hand through her mess of hair.

"Love, it's time to go to bed." He offered quietly, but loud enough to make sure to get her attention.

Annabeth groaned, shifting slightly, but didn't move.

Gently scratching the back of her neck, that seemed to do the trick. His favorite gray eyes blinked open, a mild pout on her face until she saw his face and then it turned into a smile. "I finished it!" She said proudly in a sleepy tone.

Kissing the top of her forehead, Percy smirked. "Great job, Wise Girl. You can show me tomorrow. For now you need actual sleep. In like, an actual bed."

Annabeth just groaned. "Too tired."

Percy just laughed. He was guessing now that the adrenaline and focus had left her body, her exhaustion and bad habits were catching up to her. Honestly, he would be surprised if she made it to her classes tomorrow. Annabeth may be a hero in his eyes, but she was still just a teenage girl.

"Come on then." He muttered as he wrapped an arm behind her back, moving her arms around his neck with the other.

Seemingly getting the message, Annabeth turned her body and wrapped both arms around the back of his neck as she wrapped her legs around his torso.

Gentle as he could, he lifted her up and supported her from below as he carried her like a koala towards their bed.

Annabeth's slight laugh into his collar bone made him laugh as well, and the rumbling in his chest only seemed to make her laugh a little more.

Eventually the pair made it to the bed and Percy plopped her down on it gently, before tossing her a pair of pajamas.

Annabeth quickly switched from her jeans to the blissfully comfy pajamas as she felt Percy climb into the bed next to her.

Too tired to worry about pride for once, she made grabby hands towards her boyfriend until he seemed to get the hint and moved closer so she could snuggled herself into his side. Inhaling his familiar scent, Annabeth let out a sigh of contentment. With the pressure of the blueprints gone, Annabeth was suddenly becoming painfully aware how little interaction she had had with her seaweed brain recently, she felt both incredibly guilty, and incredibly sad as well. Tilting her chin up, she kissed the bottom of his jaw in a silent apology and snuggled even closer. She missed him, a lot. This time at New Rome was supposed to be about them together, and she had once again gotten lost in her project. While she didn't regret it, she did regret brushing him aside again. Even when she hardly talked to him, he still took such good care of her. Tomorrow she would make sure to thank him properly.

Judging by the slow rise and fall of her boyfriend's chest, she figured he was already out cold. Even when exhausted, he had still made sure to make her comfy first.

Feeling the chains of sleep weighing her down, thoughts of possible dates with her seaweed brain turned into dreams as she quickly passed out next to her Percy. The next they both of them had woken up too late for their classes, but neither of them particularly minded for once. No one in New Rome was particularly surprised to see them in the local cafe either sharing a pizza and chatting away happily with a look between them that had children of Venus looking on in jealousy.

XxXxXxXxX

There were far too many reasons that Annabeth loved her boyfriend for her to count. Every time she thought she had a grip on her heart and had come to terms with her love for him, he'd do something else that swept her off her feet. From his gentle and tender love for her, to his trouble maker smile, one thing that was often on the top of her list was how hard he worked.

Annabeth could still remember seeing the scared little boy that had showed up at the camp clutching a Minotaur horn, and was broken from losing his mother. But after years of hard work, courage, and incredible luck (both good and bad) he had grown into the man that had her heart.

He was one of the most powerful swordsman she had ever seen, one of the strongest demigods she imagined there ever was, and had to be in the running for the guy with the most kelp in his head and she couldn't love him more.

But he had managed all that, aside from maybe the kelp, by years of hard work. Even outside of the training arena, Annabeth was all too aware of how hard he worked, even when others thought he was just a slacker.

Annabeth saw how much time he actually spent on his homework, even when his ADHD was as bad as hers and he didn't have the natural inclination towards studying she had. While they would still bicker about dishes and laundry from time to time, more often than not Annabeth would come home to find the dishes put away or the room straightened up. Especially on days when she had a test or a meeting about Olympus. Percy once offered that it was cause of growing up with his mom, he had gotten used to chores in order to help her out around the house. At least that extended to everything except cleaning his room. Though now that they shared one, Annabeth made a habit of taking care of that for him.

It was still a little odd to Annabeth that they had a chance to share a home in New Rome. While she had been hesitant initially, Percy had made a good point. It was a chance for them to just be together or once. No monsters, no prophecies, no threats. Just a chance for her to work on her job as Olympian architect, to start on her degree, and most importantly a chance to stabilize and grow her relationship with Percy. They both had a lot to unpack after all of the adventures they had gone through, and Annabeth knew they needed time and peace to work through them together.

New Rome had done wonders for them in that regard, it had given them time to work things out. Plus she didn't have to worry about losing her seaweed brain to the monster of the week for a while at least. They could leave the questing to others for a bit. Plus, she couldn't express the relief she felt when she saw him laugh a little easier, or how his smile was a little brighter than it had been or how free he seemed. It was returning her seaweed brain to her, and she couldn't be more thankful.

Unfortunately things weren't always easy for them. Annabeth had a habit of getting lost in her projects, and Percy still had his habit of taking on too much work for the sake of others. While college took a lot of his time, he had also ended up working at the swimming hall as a life guard and swim instructor. A lot of his time was spent working there and helping the kids. In addition to his time spent training, and helping out Reyna when she needed it. Even then, he always seemed to make time to take care of her when she was busy.

Unfortunately she often saw it stretching him too thin.

Like tonight, she was sitting on the couch. She had a bowl of popcorn, and was watching some cheesy hallmark movie on the TV and was just enjoying the break. She was currently in between big design projects, and she had already finished her homework for the week so she was free. While she had hoped to spend the day with her boyfriend, he had another swim lesson to teach so she was waiting for him to get home. Recently she had been in another one of those moods where she was wanting to spend even more time with him that usual after they had both been busy. So Annabeth might not admit it, but she was a little pouty that he _still_ wasn't home. She wouldn't be happy until she was in his arms again.

Setting down the now empty bowl, she tucked her legs underneath her as she watched the on screen couple share a kiss they had been building up towards for about an hour now.

At the sound of their door being unlocked, Annabeth's heart picked up the pace a little. She heard the jingle of his keys being set down, and his shoes being kicked off to the side. He didn't call her name though, and that caused a frown to cross her face. He usually was only quiet when in a bad mood, or extremely tired.

Turning to look at the hallway, she was about to get up when she saw the state her boyfriend was in. His gaze was drooping, his shoulders slouched downwards and a large yawn escaped his lips. When they made eye contact the corner of his mouth tugged up into a tired smile, but he continued to just trudge his way towards her. At the end of the couch he just raised a knee and fell onto it, with a soft _fwumph_ as the couch settled under his weight.

Frowning Annabeth ran a hand through his hair gently. "Is everything okay, love?"

A mumbled string of noises escaped Percy's mouth and got lost somewhere in the pillows.

"Perce?" She asked gently.

Craning his neck to look up at her, he frowned. "Fine. Jus' Tired, you know?" He muttered.

Shifting over, Annabeth gently lifted up her boyfriend's head and rested it in her lap as she continued to gently a run a hand through his hair. "I see." Was all she said. She knew he didn't like being babied, even when he was clearly in over his head.

Percy just hummed happily, and reached up to hug an arm around her waist.

Smiling at the gesture, Annabeth looked down at him and felt her heart breaking a little. It was clear he was exhausted from all the work he was doing, and so little of it seemed to be just for his own sake. He was too willing to help others in her opinion, but that was also one of the many reasons she loved him.

She was about to try and coax him into going to bed when his stomach let out a loud rumble. Laughing slightly, she paused her ministrations to his mop of hair. "Hungry?"

"Starving." He confirmed.

Annabeth patted his head, leaning down to kiss it gently before she scooted him off her lap and stood up. "I'm making you dinner then you're going to bed." She explained, leaving no room for discussion. Her boyfriend was running low and she was not going to let that happen.

Percy grunted in acknowledgment, but soon he was just passed out on the couch.

Frowning, Annabeth tried to suppress her concern as she focused on quickly making a meal for him. She knew he was just exhausted, but Annabeth would be lying if she said she hadn't developed a bit of a complex about Percy being unwell after everything they had been through.

A little while later and Annabeth finished setting out the plates of spaghetti for them.

Crouching down next to the couch, she gently shook his shoulder. "Get up Percy, you need to eat before you sleep for the night."

Food seemed to be enough of an incentive for him, and soon he was up and trudging his way over to the table. Mentally taking a picture of the adorable way his hair was sticking up, Annabeth followed him and ushered a generous helping onto his plate.

He was just quiet as he wolfed down his share, only pausing to compliment her cooking.

While Annabeth wasn't exactly a gourmet chef, she had to admit that his compliments made her want to cook a little more for him.

Soon Percy had finished scrapping his plate clean of his second helping. Standing up, he grabbed his dish and rinsed it off in the sink.

"It was delicious." He muttered in appreciation before another yawn escaped him.

Cleaning her own dish, Annabeth rested a hand on the small of Percy's back. "Time for bed, dear. You need rest. Now." She ordered as she lead him back towards their bedroom.

He just nodded, letting her lead him away. A few minutes later and they were both cuddled up in the bed, having shared a goodnight kiss. Percy was already out cold, an arm over Annabeth to hold her close. As Annabeth fought off sleep for a few more moments, she ran through her plan for tomorrow. Percy had a full day, but she only had morning classes. That gave her plenty of time.

Giving in to sleep, Annabeth readied herself.

When Annabeth returned home from classes the next afternoon, Annabeth set to work. Cranking up her music, she got ready. Before long the house was nice and clean, even the chores that were Percy's for the week. Munching on a sandwich, she moved over to where Percy's books were strewn across their coffee table. Opening them carefully, she glanced over what he was learning. While he talked about it occasionally, Annabeth remembered that specific chapter from before. Pulling out her own notebook, she pulled out her pen and began to scan the chapter.

About an hour later, she closed all of his books again and finished drawing a little heart in the corner of the page. Setting it down on top of the book, she nodded to herself. Her study guide and page of notes was finished. She had studied with Percy more than enough times by this point to know how he learned thankfully. Hopefully that study-guide would make this next chapter at least a little easier for him. Glancing at the clock she realized she had about an hour till he got home. Perfect.

Grabbing her keys, she made her way out of their place.

When she returned, she saw Percy was due back in five minutes. Knowing him, he'd walk in the door 10 minutes from now. Setting down the steaming box of Pizza from his favorite place, Annabeth set out the soda as well as she began to mix the batter, pouring a generous amount of blue food dye into it.

It was days like these that Annabeth was glad she had gotten Sally's recipe for cookies.

Sure enough, Percy wandered in not too much later.

"Babe?" He called, sniffing the air.

Turning, Annabeth continued to mix the batter as she saw Percy turned the corner before his eyes lit up. "I thought I smelled Pizza." He said eagerly.

Annabeth just laughed as her boyfriend moved towards her, taking the bowl from her hands and setting it down on the counter, before he pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her waist. "What's this for?" He asked with a lopsided smirk.

Annabeth just leaned up and kissed him. "Because I think you could use a nice day in, and I miss spending time with my boyfriend. Plus it's been like a week since we had pizza so I figured you were in withdrawals by now."

Percy just laughed, kissing the top of her head. "You know me so well."

Annabeth just smirked. "It's kind of my job Seaweed Brain. Now go eat the pizza before it gets cold. I need to finish the batter." She ordered before kissing him once more and shoving him gently away.

Percy nodded, letting his hand brush her back once more before he quickly moved over to get a slice of his favorite pizza.

Soon Annabeth joined him, and together they made short work of the pizza. The cookies were baking in the oven, and they were currently huddled up on the couch together. A blanket was draped over them as they took turns commenting on the random movie they had found to watch. Annabeth was laying against the side with Percy laying against her. She had her arms wrapped around him, idly tracing patterns on his chest as she relished the feeling of him being safe in her arms.

She could stay like this forever. This was the something permanent she was looking for.

Eventually they had to move when she got up to answer the timer and take the cookies out.

The look Percy gave her when she offered him the tray of blue cookies made Annabeth blush. Sometimes it was hard to believe that she could earn that look from him, she never thought it could be possible that he felt as strongly about her as she did about him. Never the less, she just took a bite of a cookie herself to stop herself from saying something too love struck.

Deciding that they needed some fresh air, they opted to take a walk hand in hand. The weather was beautiful, and the quiet walk was what they needed to forget about all their classes, jobs, and projects. For the moment they just had each other.

Waving to some of the various other campers they saw, Annabeth made sure to steer them clear of anyone that could approach them with a request.

Eventually they wound their trip down and ended up back at their home. It was getting late, and they were both starting to get tired. They had said enough while walking that they were just in a comfortable silence. They both took Percy letting out a large yawn as a sign that it was time for bed. Soon they were snuggled up in their bed again, and Annabeth ran a hand through Percy's hair as she held him close. "Feeling better?" She asked gently.

Percy just laughed. "Annabeth, after spending the day with you? I'm pretty sure there's nothing in the world that could make me feel better." He offered, kissing her once before snuggling a little closer and starting to drift off.

"I love you." Were his final words before he was snoring.

Annabeth kissed the top of his head one last time, unable to properly process the feelings that were built up inside of her.

"I love you too." She simply said as she held him a little closer.

XxXxXxXxX

Thank you for reading! Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Life is busy and changing for me so not as much time to write. Got inspired to write this earlier so I went with it. Let me know what you thought!


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